EPCC gun scare sparks lockdown on campuses

An El Paso police car blocks a road that runs between the El Paso Community College Northwest campus and Canutillo High School during and alleged incident there Friday afternoon. (Photo: RUDY GUTIERREZ / EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

The Canutillo Independent School District's central office, Canutillo High School, the El Paso Community College Northwest campus and its early college high school were on lockdown Friday afternoon after a woman called police, claiming she was being followed by a man with a gun, school officials said.

Shane B. Griffith, spokesman for the CISD, said that a woman called the Anthony, Texas, Police Department at approximately noon Friday and said that a man wearing a white T-shirt and pants had a chain and a gun and was following her through the parking lot of the El Paso Community College Northwest campus.

Following the report made by the woman, whose identity has not been revealed, Griffith said the lockdown was put into place.

Griffith said he believed that the woman might be an EPCC student. College officials could not confirm whether the woman was a student.
While the lockdown was in place, helicopters flew over the campuses searching for the suspect. Onlookers gathered near The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso and traffic built up as law-enforcement officials blocked the entrance to Interstate 10 at Trans Mountain Road.

Canutillo put out a Facebook post with an update on the lockdown that read in part, “Lock down orders have been issued ... due to report of person with gun on EPCC campus. Everyone is safe.”

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El Paso police are seen along South Desert Boulevard between Canutillo High School and the adjacent El Paso Community College Northwest Campus during a lockdown at the school Oct. 2.(Photo: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES FILE)

People shared and responded to the district's Facebook post. Some called for updates, while others offered their own.

Guadalupe Neal wrote, “Again all students r safe, we all were moved to safe area in the blding and staff is w students.”

Griffith said that once the room-by-room sweeps of all campuses were complete, "The suspect was not found and therefore, the all-clear was given to lift the lockdown."

Griffith said school officials were quick to respond to the possible threat and had the school locked down within minutes.

"The initial report from the young lady came in at about 12:01 p.m. and all of our campuses were locked down by 12:10 p.m.," Griffith said. "It was a very quick and coordinated effort. We were in the middle of lunch, so there were a lot of kids outside on our high school campus and we just marshaled everyone in, sit down, lights off, doors closed until we received updates and official orders from our CISD security team."

Canutillo officials said there will be additional conversations with the woman who reported the threat.

“We will get more details on that situation now that the immediate security issue has been resolved,” Griffith said.

At about the same time the threat was reported, El Paso Community College tweeted a reminder to students in English and Spanish to update their information for The Tejano Alert Emergency Notification System. According to EPPC’s website, the alert system keeps college staff and students informed of emergencies and unexpected events.

Griffith said he did not know whether that tweet is related to the lockdown.

Joyce Cordell, an EPCC spokeswoman, said she sent out that tweet in light of Thursday's shooting at a community college in Oregon. Cordell said the fact that tweet went out around the same time of the lockdown was coincidental.

“There was no connection to that at all,” Cordell said. “I sent that tweet. I don’t know how you would put those two things together."

Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; lclopez@gannett.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter.